Mister songman

[tcb4]

Hello

Your opinion of this song

[keninlincs]

very good i think

[Rob]

I have always liked the song for personal reasons. Especially that tag line, "Take away the night, sing away my hurt, Mr. Songman."

Not an Elvis classic by any means, but very pleasant to these ears.

[Tony Trout]

I have always liked the song for personal reasons. Especially that tag line, "Take away the night, sing away my hurt, Mr. Songman."

Not an Elvis classic by any means, but very pleasant to these ears.

I agree, Rob. It's not what one would term a 'classic' Elvis song but it is one of my favorites. I love the mix on the 70s box set of this song.

[midnightx]

Bad

[Lennart]

I´ve never liked that song, one of his worst from the 70:s.
Still don´t understand why it was chosen as the flip side to T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

So I voted "Bad"

All my humble opinion, of course!

Lennart

[dreambear]

A good performance of a boring song in my opinion. Boring is what I voted!

//Björn

[ColinB]

I have always liked the song for personal reasons.

But a person's like or dislike of a song is always based on 'personal reasons' isn't it ?

I guess you mean the song has some 'special' meaning for you..............

[drjohncarpenter]

Hello

Your opinion of this song

In a career filled with peaks, Elvis was really peaking when he cut the master of "Mr. Songman."

"Take away the knives, sing away my skirt, Mr. Sooongmaaaan."

[Pete Dube]

At best it's fair to middlin.' I think it's the weakest track from the December '73 Stax sessions. Somebody shoulda said "Elvis, forget about this one and do another Chuck Berry tune!"

[midnightx]

At best it's fair to middlin.' I think it's the weakest track from the December '73 Stax sessions. Somebody shoulda said "Elvis, forget about this one and do another Chuck Berry tune!"

Or if anything, hunt down some more Shirl Milete gold.

[Rob]

In a career filled with peaks, Elvis was really peaking when he cut the master of "Mr. Songman."

"Take away the knives, sing away my skirt, Mr. Sooongmaaaan."

Have you been experimenting in the medicine cabinet again?

[Denman]

I like it.

[Mike Eder]

It's an ok album cut. Not bad, not great. Some of the harmonies are nice, but nothing I play over and over.

[Pete Dube]

At best it's fair to middlin.' I think it's the weakest track from the December '73 Stax sessions. Somebody shoulda said "Elvis, forget about this one and do another Chuck Berry tune!"

Or if anything, hunt down some more Shirl Milete gold.

Only if Shirl had another "It's Your Baby, You Rock It" lying around.

[likethebike]

I don't think it's terrible. It's kind of a mediocre country singalong type song. The verse lyric would benefit from being a little less pretentious. Elvis' performance is committed but careful. I see this song as kind of an exercise more than as an artistic statement.

Lennart- If you can't bury a pedestrian track on a B-side where can you put it. Elvis, for most of his career, was unique in even paying attention to B-sides. Phil Spector was so focused on A-sides that he would make the B-sides deliberately unlistenable in order to keep attention on the A. This was especially so after "Unchained Melody" a song he considered a toss off, topped "Hung on You."

[midnightx]

I don't think it's terrible. It's kind of a mediocre country singalong type song. The verse lyric would benefit from being a little less pretentious. Elvis' performance is committed but careful. I see this song as kind of an exercise more than as an artistic statement.

Sadly, this scenario played out way too often for an artist of Elvis' talents.

[likethebike]

It's just that Elvis was musical woodshedder and sometimes you had to go through this stuff to reach the classics. We had to go through "I Love You Because" and "Harbor Lights" (sorry Cryo) to get to "That's All Right Mama." The same could be said of this song and "Promised Land."

[drjohncarpenter]

It's just that Elvis was musical woodshedder and sometimes you had to go through this stuff to reach the classics. We had to go through "I Love You Because" and "Harbor Lights" (sorry Cryo) to get to "That's All Right Mama." The same could be said of this song and "Promised Land."

There was a lot more, uh, woodshedding in the 1970s, with very little payback when compared to the 1950s.

[BigredG]

Pleasant enough song, well performed. I like it a lot, but can see why others would despise it. Not a classic of course.

I voted good.

[javilu]

Average for me. Nothing special.

[RonBaker2003]

I'd rather listen to "Harbor Lights" (which is an outtake) than to "Mister Songman". Can't say the same for "I Love You Because" though...yuck.

[Lennart]

Lennart- If you can't bury a pedestrian track on a B-side where can you put it. Elvis, for most of his career, was unique in even paying attention to B-sides. Phil Spector was so focused on A-sides that he would make the B-sides deliberately unlistenable in order to keep attention on the A. This was especially so after "Unchained Melody" a song he considered a toss off, topped "Hung on You."[/quote]

Well, my opinion is that he should never recorded the song in the first place.
Since he did record it, it should not been released and if Elvis/Felton/RCA STILL would have it relaesed, it was quite enough to have it released on the "Promised Land" LP.

The B-side to T.R.O.U.B.L.E should have been "Pieces of my life" instead.
"Bringing it back" wasn´t that all great A-side but the B-side was really good.

Lennart

[Cryogenic]

It's just that Elvis was musical woodshedder and sometimes you had to go through this stuff to reach the classics. We had to go through "I Love You Because" and "Harbor Lights" (sorry Cryo) to get to "That's All Right Mama." The same could be said of this song and "Promised Land."

GRRRRGGGH!!!!!

*shakes fist in LTB's direction*



I understand what you're saying, LTB, but it just comes down to personal taste.

I don't personally find "Mr Songman" earth-shattering, but some, perhaps most, wouldn't agree with all my choices, either.

Heck, outside of the EP World, Elvis isn't even admired very much as an artist, these days. Everyone has their own interests and likes/dislikes.

[likethebike]

It's just that Elvis was musical woodshedder and sometimes you had to go through this stuff to reach the classics. We had to go through "I Love You Because" and "Harbor Lights" (sorry Cryo) to get to "That's All Right Mama." The same could be said of this song and "Promised Land."

There was a lot more, uh, woodshedding in the 1970s, with very little payback when compared to the 1950s.

What're you gonna do? Sometimes you're more on your game than other times.